ryan182

Good that you returned the not-your-bag to AA so it can be reunited with the owner of said bag, hoping that common sense prevailed and whomever had your daughters bad did the same especially if there was sentimental items in it! Did you end up getting it back?

alancostello

I'm honestly surprised this isn't happening more often, last couple flights I've noticed at least a dozen of the 'Away Luggage' branded carry ons being put in overhead bins, nearly all in black or navy, with the occasional brighter colour. It's got to be getting hard to make sure you have the right bag when there are multiple identical bags all around you, if you've got a connecting flight or you're just in a rush I can see it being very easy to grab the wrong bag.

WiscAZ

I have one of the Away navy bags (which is great by the way) and once I started using it, I noticed how many others had the same bag! I put one of my exp tags on there with my name and then a tag of the NFL team I support (I won't say here!). Funny thing is I travel most through an airport with our biggest rival so I'm surprised it hasn't gotten "lost" before!

formeraa

Somewhat off topic, but I owned a burgundy Ford Taurus in the early 1990's in Dallas. Everytime I would go to the mail, it seemed that there were at least 4 other burgundy Ford Tauruses parked near me. I would inevitably go to the wrong car.

Same thing with carry-ons! I always put a bright colored id tag (what if it had to be checked for some reason?) and some other bright colored ribbon/handle cover/etc. on the bag to help not get it mixed up with others. Recently, I bought a red colored carry on to avoid mix-ups.

linglingfool

Qantas does this already.

jmastron

I apologize for asking this -- is your daughter sure that her bag was taken first? I.e. did she take the other bag knowing it must belong to the perp in order to look for ID info, or is there any possibility that she was the one to first take the wrong bag? I just ask because it impacts how far I'd push things like police involvement to force the airline's assistance in tracking down the person who took the other bag, and of course how angry I'd be at the other person when it is hopefully recovered.

Windycitywings

We have not been reunited just yet. We have learned a few things along the way though. First, AA baggage and AA lost and found are different systems( lost and found outsourced) and are not integrated. For Instance. I have filled out a Lost & Found report for the returned bag and its exact contents which I returned to AA DCA on Sunday. The Lost and Found Bag is in their possession and they don’t know it.
Secondly. We have moved to notifying Washington Dulles Lost and Found. If they do not have then we will file a police report with Dulles Airport Police who will be able to investigate / access surveillance capabilities. Perhaps the person realized it was not their bag, had no time to deal with it and just left it. Will hopefully learn more tomorrow and will share with AA so they can perhaps improve a potential gap in info sharing.
thanks for all the feedback.